In this project, you'll investigate the physics of standing waves on guitar strings. You'll learn about the different modes (i.e., patterns) of vibration that can be produced on a string, and you'll figure out how to produce the various modes by lightly touching the string at just the right place while you pick the string. This technique is called playing harmonics on the string. By the way, we chose a guitar for this project, but you can do the experiments using any stringed instrument, with…
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Music_p009

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Time Required

Very Short (≤ 1 day)

Prerequisites

To do this project, you'll need a guitar (or other stringed instrument). You'll need to know enough about playing the instrument to produce clear harmonics by picking (or plucking) the string while lightly touching it in just the right place.

This is a rockin' project for guitarists with an interest in the physics behind the music. Have you ever wondered why the pitch of the note changes when you fret the string? You can find out for yourself with this project on the fundamental physics of stringed instruments.
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Music_p010

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Time Required

Very Short (≤ 1 day)

Prerequisites

To do this project, you will need a guitar (or other stringed instrument). You'll need to know enough about playing the instrument to produce clear, ringing tones by picking (or plucking) the string while changing its effective length by fretting (or fingering) it.

Here's a fun science project for anyone who plays an electric guitar. You'll learn about the physics of vibrating strings, and find out why the tone of your guitar changes when you switch between the different pickups.
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Music_p006

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Time Required

Short (2-5 days)

Prerequisites

To do this project you need to have an electric guitar and guitar amplifier. You'll need to know enough about playing the instrument to produce clear, ringing tones by picking (or plucking) the string.

Did you know that your guitar has a secret? Yes, that's right—hidden along each string are special places where you can play harmonics and make your guitar sound like a bell! In this music science fair project, you'll find out where the main harmonics are located on a guitar, and then see how those locations are related to the length of the strings. So get out your guitar—it's time to ring in a science fair project!
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The renowned pianist Vladimir Horowitz once said, "The most important thing is to transform the piano from a percussive instrument into a singing instrument." Check out this project to learn about sympathetic vibrations, one way to make piano strings sing.
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Music_p012

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Time Required

Very Short (≤ 1 day)

Prerequisites

To do this project, you'll need a piano which is in tune. You'll also need to know enough about the piano to find notes by their letter names.

Do you love to make music, but do not have access to all the instruments you would love to play? Check out this fun science fair project about the physics of musical sound production. You will make musical instruments with drinking straws, one for each note on a one-octave major scale. Can you figure out the right lengths for a series of straw "oboes" in order to play a musical scale?
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Music_p016

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Time Required

Short (2-5 days)

Prerequisites

You must have an understanding of waves or a willingness to learn about them in order to do this science fair project. Familiarity with a musical instrument and playing a reed instrument is helpful, but not required.

Walk into any music store and you'll find a dizzying array of string choices for your classical guitar, including rectified nylon, clear nylon, carbon fluoride, bronze wound, phosphor bronze wound, silver-plated copper wire, Polytetra-flouro-ethylene (PTFE), each in a range of tensions from low to high. There is no single best brand or best material. All have their advantages and disadvantages. A set of strings that sounds "sparkling" on one guitar might sound dull on another, primarily because…
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Music_p021

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Time Required

Long (2-4 weeks)

Prerequisites

You will need a guitar, a guitar tuner, and a personal computer with sound processing software, or the ability to run and execute signal-processing programs.

If you like music and musical instruments, here is a project that might resonate with you! This is a fun experiment to investigate materials that could be used to build acoustic musical instruments. You can use a music box mechanism and a sound level meter to see which materials make the best soundboards.
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Have you ever blown across a bottle's top and made a pleasant, resonant sound? If so, have you wondered how that note is made exactly? A bottle is actually what is called a closed-end air column. Clarinets and some organ pipes are examples of musical instruments of this type. In this science project, you will use bottles to investigate how the length of a closed-end air column affects the pitch of the note that it makes. All you need are some bottles, water, a ruler, and a chromatic tuner.
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A concert piano. It's a beautiful instrument and a spectacular sight when it's all set up on stage. The first thing you may notice when you first look at a concert piano is the impressive-looking soundboard, that large board on the back of the piano that is tilted up at an angle. It is used for amplification. The sound board greatly increases the volume of sound coming from vibrations of the strings. The soundboard is positioned so that it gathers the sound vibrations coming from the strings…
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Music_p022

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Time Required

Average (6-10 days)

Prerequisites

You must have a classical guitar and a personal computer with a microphone, or a tape recorder with a visual display of input signals.

You can find this page online at: http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/search.shtml?v=solt&pi=Music_p011

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